Dreamattic - IT and New Media Network

Mark Gurman and Sonny Dickson at 9to5Mac found that Apple has included hidden bluetooth support in their second-generation Apple TV. Bluetooth support is not present within the current Apple TV OS, but the device does currently ship with a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip installed and, according to 9to5Mac, Apple’s next major operating system, iOS 5, will turn on this bluetooth support.

Gurman’s guess is that Apple is positioning this bluetooth support mainly for keyboards (this could mean the company is working on Safari for ATV2) but perhaps this would also make it possible to hook up your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch (having more controllers would make bringing games and apps to Apple TV simpler).

According to 9to5Mac, users will be able to activate the device’s built-in bluetooth support via the standard settings menu. A standard pairing menu will then appear and users will need to connect with a provided passcode.

Apple is also rumored to launch a faster Apple TV this fall with their dual-core A5 processor and 1080P video playback support.

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Recently released Remote HD is an iPad/iPhone/iPod touch universal and powerful application that gives you complete access to your AppleTV, Mac or PC. It works like an Apple Remote, but it can do a lot more – one of the greatest features is Remote View that brings your AppleTV’s display to the iPhone/iPad or iPod touch.

Remote View now also works with XBMC and Boxee.

The app allows you to reconnect to last connection – - if you use Remote HD mostly to connect to the same Apple TV, you can save the time of searching for available connections and tapping to connect.

Using Remote HD you can also put the Apple TV to sleep, restart it or even shut it down altogether. In addition, selecting “Log off” will perform a “soft” restart on the Apple TV.

Other great feature is that when you connect to your computer or Apple TV using the mobile network (3G, EDGE, GPRS), Remote HD kicks into a mode designed to save data transfer and optimize its performance based on the available bandwidth at any given time. Check out the rest of the features here.

The app is XBMC and Boxee compatible. aTV Flash has already added support for Remote HD (can be installed through the Maintenance –> Install Extras menu).

We have 5 free copies of the app to give away! To enter the contest follow us on Twitter and retweet the contest message (Win RemoteHD and access your AppleTV from your iPhone/iPad! Follow @appletvhacks and RT for your chance to win #giveaway). The winners will be announced on Tuesday (June 29).

Apple has filed a set of patents for a Wii-style remote control for Apple TV.

In the two patent applications Apple describes a “wand” for controlling the operations of a media system, suggesting the iPhone-maker may be considering games for Apple TV.

That would involve distributing them to the device through the iTunes App Store, as is currently the case for the iPhone.

In January, it was suggested that NVIDIA’s Ion platform is likely to be included in the next Apple TV.

Among the uses proposed by Apple for the wand are zoom operations, a keyboard application, an image application, an illustration application and a media application.

Other possiblities for the wand include it being used to call up a dock, and then to select an option from the menu by moving the wand across the screen.

The controller could also scroll through a CoverFlow display and be used to manipulate photos by zooming in and out and rotating.

Source: HTDV.biz-news.com

It will be interesting to see how it develops, and if this will finally move apple to invest more in the platform.